ASUSTek's gains came partially on the back of strong tablet sales. With a lineup anchored by the Google Inc. (GOOG) branded Nexus 7 tablet, ASUSTek tablets ascended to third place, bumping down Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). ASUSTek sold 3 million tablets in the quarter.

Most of ASUSTek's tablet sales came from its Android models (particularly the popular Nexus 7), but the company has also seen some small gains from its Windows 8 tablets, which are currently among the most affordable Windows tablets on the market. Its 10-inch VivoTab Smart is priced at an attractive $450.

ASUSTek hopes to expand its base by becoming the first OEM to offer 7-inch Windows (8) RT tablets. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is rumored to be preparing a 7-inch Surface tablet already. ASUSTek Chief Executive Jerry Shen said the price of such a small Windows 8 tablet would likely be under $300 USD. That's in line with an Intel Corp. (INTC) executive who in April said Windows 8 tablets could soon hit $200 USD or less. Mr. Shen elates, "We're very optimistic about sales for Windows 8 tablets this year."

quote: On single threaded performance, you should expect a 2.4GHz Silvermont to perform like a 1.2GHz Penryn. To put it in perspective of actual systems, we’re talking about around the level of performance of an 11-inch Core 2 Duo MacBook Air from 2010. Keep in mind, I’m talking about single threaded performance here. In heavily threaded applications, a quad-core Silvermont should be able to bat even further up the Penryn line. Intel is able to do all of this with only a 2-wide machine (lower IPC, but much higher frequency thanks to 22nm).

Silvermont in a <300$ Windows 8 Tablet would probably skyrocket Windows 8 marketshare. There's the potential for real SSD storage too, even if it's just like 32GB + SD or something. That would leave somebody with about 14-18GB of real storage (especially if Asus tunes the hibernate, which should never be needed on a silvermont tablet, and the pagefile), + an SD card, and a fully featured, and possibly more responsive Windows 8 tablet.